Scientists have long considered tinnitus (a.k.a. “ringing in the ears”) to be the auditory analogue of chronic pain, with a large body of evidence showing that they affect similar networks of regions throughout the brain, as opposed to just the relevant sensory areas. However, the full extent of this tinnitus–pain analogy has yet to be established; the involvement of nucleus accumbens (NAc), for instance, is well documented in chronic pain but only ever hypothesized in tinnitus. This talk presents the first empirical evidence that tinnitus patients have increased functional connectivity involving NAc relative to healthy controls using resting-state fMRI and further discusses the possible roles of NAc in the pathology of tinnitus.

Coffee and snacks will be provided. Please feel free to bring your lunch.